Increasing scarcity and cost of water is driving advances in irrigation. In California and Australia, for example, wine growers are now utilizing techniques such as root deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial root zone drying (PRD). The grapevines are hence irrigated with less water than in conventional viniculture. These techniques not only save water, but can increase the value of the crop by improving crop attributes for which the market will pay a premium. These techniques will reach maximum effectiveness when irrigation can be economically controlled on a plant-by-plant basis.
Another advance in irrigation is the deployment of wireless sensor networks to enhance crop management. One of the challenges to this approach is the cost of the network nodes and the energy they require for communication, especially for powering electro-mechanical actuators such as irrigation valves.
Thus, there is a need for an automatic irrigation system that controls irrigation of one or more plants according to their actual moisture requirements, but also allowing a remote or environmental dependent adjustment of the desired or achieved moisture level. The valve of the irrigation system should have low requirements for electric energy and a low price.
It is an object of the present invention to provide for low cost, individual or small group plant water control that is preferably suited for supporting RDI and PRD techniques.